I have not visited you all for some months now, in fact this year I have only popped in occasionally, so please forgive me. This year has presented all manner of challenges and perhaps thankfully most have not been AD associated. In February my 80 year old (non AD) Mum fell and broke her hip and having been very active previously has never regained her previous mobility creating all sorts of difficulties and frustrations all around. Naturally I constantly watch for the dreaded signs that the trauma may have triggered but for her age she is doing pretty well mentally and long may that continue!
Unfortunately my 93 year old (non AD and totally independent) Aunty in London was found collapsed in her home a few months ago and having suffered a major stroke never recovered eventually slipping away a few weeks ago – close to the anniversary of Dads passing. This knocked more stuffing out of my Mum in particular as they were extremely close.
Now this week my Aunt in the EMI home at Ellesmere Port was found on the floor in the night and is now in hospital with – you’ve guessed it – a broken hip. By the time I reached A&E she had been x-rayed and diagnosed and was waiting to go onto a ward. A carer from the home had travelled in with her and amazingly Aunty seemed to cope quite well. However once on the ward it became one of those “laugh or cry” scenarios as in the small bay she was put in the lady opposite spent all night “talking” to the queen and various other members of the Royal family. My Aunt contributed with constant and loud mumblings about goodness knows what (her speech has long since failed and only rarely now do we make out anything though her conversations usually seem pretty serious and with purpose. Alongside Aunty was a poor young woman who had been in a car accident and was in a great deal of pain and desperate to get some sleep of which she had absolutely no chance. She actually said she could deal with my Aunt’s ramblings but was finding it very difficult with the lady opposite particularly when the “discussion” with the Queen turned to Diana’s death in the car crash as having herself just been pulled out of the wreckage of a car, and having been told by the policeman who attended that he had not expected any one to escape alive it was all a bit too much to cope with.
So here we are 72 hours on. Aunty had her op eventually yesterday as the x-ray dept was too busy on Tuesday (be thankful I guess as the young woman from the RTA only had hers today!). Mum and I have travelled up again today but things are not very good. It seems she is having difficulty swallowing and is therefore on nil by mouth until she can be reassessed tomorrow. Now in a different bay the woman opposite immediately on seeing us pleaded that we didn’t wake her as she has been very agitated and distressed today. Mercifully she did sleep for over an hour (definite improvement on the 15 minute spells she managed when I sat with her the first night) however on waking she did get increasingly worked up which we weren’t able to help with at all and this distressed Mum even more. It’s strange that having been Dads carer for so long she appears to have selectively forgotten much of what she learned through the experience and views Auntys symptoms as though she has never seen anything like them????
What now? Well, I guess I am going to trawl through the postings here for some indication of how long she may be in the hospital and what may happen next. Her EMI home also has a nursing section but I have not had time to call them yet to find out how mobile she has to be before she can return there. I do hope it will be sooner rather than later as I have a great deal of respect and confidence for their ability to look after her needs – the staff at the hospital, although the best I have dealt with, are limited in the attention they can give and we are too far away to be of much practical use.
Why is it that at this time of night your mind can be so clear? I have now mentally mapped out all the things I must do and the calls I need to make before I go to work yet I can guarantee that in the morning the plan will dissolve into a collection of disjointed thoughts and I will spend every spare minute (not many of them for anyone at this time of year is there) grasping at threads!
To all my dear friends out there, I hope things are as well as they can be, I will try and catch up on some of your postings and look forward to chatting with you here soon.
Kriss
xxx
Unfortunately my 93 year old (non AD and totally independent) Aunty in London was found collapsed in her home a few months ago and having suffered a major stroke never recovered eventually slipping away a few weeks ago – close to the anniversary of Dads passing. This knocked more stuffing out of my Mum in particular as they were extremely close.
Now this week my Aunt in the EMI home at Ellesmere Port was found on the floor in the night and is now in hospital with – you’ve guessed it – a broken hip. By the time I reached A&E she had been x-rayed and diagnosed and was waiting to go onto a ward. A carer from the home had travelled in with her and amazingly Aunty seemed to cope quite well. However once on the ward it became one of those “laugh or cry” scenarios as in the small bay she was put in the lady opposite spent all night “talking” to the queen and various other members of the Royal family. My Aunt contributed with constant and loud mumblings about goodness knows what (her speech has long since failed and only rarely now do we make out anything though her conversations usually seem pretty serious and with purpose. Alongside Aunty was a poor young woman who had been in a car accident and was in a great deal of pain and desperate to get some sleep of which she had absolutely no chance. She actually said she could deal with my Aunt’s ramblings but was finding it very difficult with the lady opposite particularly when the “discussion” with the Queen turned to Diana’s death in the car crash as having herself just been pulled out of the wreckage of a car, and having been told by the policeman who attended that he had not expected any one to escape alive it was all a bit too much to cope with.
So here we are 72 hours on. Aunty had her op eventually yesterday as the x-ray dept was too busy on Tuesday (be thankful I guess as the young woman from the RTA only had hers today!). Mum and I have travelled up again today but things are not very good. It seems she is having difficulty swallowing and is therefore on nil by mouth until she can be reassessed tomorrow. Now in a different bay the woman opposite immediately on seeing us pleaded that we didn’t wake her as she has been very agitated and distressed today. Mercifully she did sleep for over an hour (definite improvement on the 15 minute spells she managed when I sat with her the first night) however on waking she did get increasingly worked up which we weren’t able to help with at all and this distressed Mum even more. It’s strange that having been Dads carer for so long she appears to have selectively forgotten much of what she learned through the experience and views Auntys symptoms as though she has never seen anything like them????
What now? Well, I guess I am going to trawl through the postings here for some indication of how long she may be in the hospital and what may happen next. Her EMI home also has a nursing section but I have not had time to call them yet to find out how mobile she has to be before she can return there. I do hope it will be sooner rather than later as I have a great deal of respect and confidence for their ability to look after her needs – the staff at the hospital, although the best I have dealt with, are limited in the attention they can give and we are too far away to be of much practical use.
Why is it that at this time of night your mind can be so clear? I have now mentally mapped out all the things I must do and the calls I need to make before I go to work yet I can guarantee that in the morning the plan will dissolve into a collection of disjointed thoughts and I will spend every spare minute (not many of them for anyone at this time of year is there) grasping at threads!
To all my dear friends out there, I hope things are as well as they can be, I will try and catch up on some of your postings and look forward to chatting with you here soon.
Kriss
xxx
Mum had the op yesterday morning and they will try to mobilise her tomorrow. They have said that if she won't co-opreate with the physios then it could be longer. This is also taking into account that mum has no stairs to climb at our house.....her room and ensuite shower room is downstairs.......
